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圖書資訊
Peyton Lockhart and her sisters have inherited Bishop’s Cove, a small, luxurious oceanfront resort, but it comes with a condition: The girls must run the resort for one year and show a profit—only then will they own it.
A graduate of a prestigious French culinary school, Peyton has just lost her job as a food critic. Out of work and in a bad place personally, a year doing something completely different sounds wonderful.
There are countless challenges and too many people who want to stop the sisters from succeeding. Among them are Peyton’s contentious cousins, who are outraged that they didn’t inherit the resort, as well as a powerful group of land developers who have been eyeing the coveted beachfront property.
It’s soon apparent to Peyton that their efforts are being sabotaged, but she refuses to let the threats scare her—until she’s nearly killed. She calls on her childhood friend and protector, Finn MacBain, now with the FBI, and asks for his help. He saved her life once; he can do it again.
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conniechuang1 replied on 固定網址
Re: Hotshot
剛剛看完hotshot，老實說有點小失望、也覺得蠻遺憾的。如真要評分，我只能給2.5片葉子(頂多3片)。有點難過Garwood浪費了她長久以來建立的名聲。
這本小說是以青梅竹馬的背景為故事設定基礎，男主角Finn在14歲時救了當時6歲的女主角Peyton免於溺斃(男女主角是鄰居)，理所當然也是教會她游泳的人,Finn獲得奧林匹克金牌後"當然"成為FBI，然後救了在職場中慘遭性騷擾的女主角。
其實故事背景設定得還不錯, 但Garwood花太多時間浪費在描寫女主角悲慘的職業生涯, 寫了整整5個章節去描繪(Finn只在序裡小小出現一下，說明他如何進入她的生命,令我訝異的是,Garwood對她的前男友們也是寥寥幾句便輕輕帶過),直到第6章男女主角才真正的"見面"。不過自那開始故事的確比較好看一點. 但是好像少了一點什麼…,我是Garwood長久以來的支持者，Garwood事實上很會在每個章節末了埋伏筆, 並在新的一章開頭有趣的破題，這種運用方式很能帶領且延續讀者閱讀的興趣，但總覺得她在這本書裡運用得不是那麼得讓人”瞭然於心”並能”會心一笑”。
幾處地方我是覺得她描寫得不錯，Peyton在知道Finn對於愛與婚姻的認知與她迥然有別，「在故事裡，Finn曾遭背叛(故事就自己看囉) 」，她堅強面對的態度我真的很欣賞，這幾章寫得不錯。而Finn因Peyton遭難後再度趕到她身邊時，Peyton僅用「You left(你離開了)」控訴他，而他僅回「I came Back(我回來了)」，這裡Garwood的描述很能讓讀者體會，情緒上的堆砌得蠻不錯，我的確當下只覺得..哇!
Garwood同樣在Finn向Peyton表白時處理的也不錯。Finn要Peyton陪他去游泳（記得嗎?男主角設定為奧運金牌泳將），他游回坐在池畔的Peyton旁時，告訴她他愛她，卻留Peyton嚇傻在那裏，再一個lap(一圈)回來再次告訴她他愛她，..這裡Garwood的文字的張力的確明顯呈現，至少我很喜歡這段。
我也蠻欣賞這段，Finn告訴Peyton讓他內心中擔心害怕僅有兩件事，都是和Peyton有關，我簡單翻翻並截錄元文如下:Finn說“There are things about my life you should understand.”(我的人生中有些事情你應該知道)… “I’ve seen some pretty awful things,”(我經歷了許多可怕的事情) he continued(他繼續說著). “There’s real evil in the world, and when you come face-to-face with it, it sticks in your head. You can’t get away from it. Even when you’re asleep.”(世界上真的存在著一些極度邪惡的事, 而當你必須面對它們時,這些事會烙印在你的腦海裡, 你怎樣也擺脫不了, 即便你已經睡著了.)… “As hard as some of those situations have been, I’ve only been scared . . . really scared . . . twice in my life,”(而就算我已經歷這些困難的事情. 在我生命裡,我也僅恐懼過...真的恐懼過...2次) he said(他說). “I’ve been in knife fights, gunfights, brawls. I was never scared then. The adrenaline would be there, but I was doing my job. The first time was when I was fourteen and looked out my window and saw you go under the water. I almost froze, I was so scared. To this day I haven’t forgotten that feeling.”(我經經歷過持刀搏鬥, 槍戰,赤手搏鬥.我從未感到害怕.腎上腺素總是在那裡,我只是在執行我的工作.第一次是我14歲時從我房間的窗戶看到你掉到水裡.我幾乎凍住, 我超恐懼的, 甚至到今天我還是無法忘掉那種感覺)That was when Braxton sent me that text that your car blew up and you were on the way to the hospital.I didn’t know how bad it was, didn’t know if you were going to live or die. That same god-awful feeling of real terror was there inside me. I love you, and I don’t want to live without you. I’m better with you. It’s as simple as that . . . and as liberating. Marry me.”(然後當我收到Braxton的簡訊,說你的車被炸掉, 而你正被送往醫院.我不知道你的情形有多糟糕,不知道你是生是死.那種極度糟糕的恐懼害怕充斥我.我愛你, 而我不想讓我的生命中沒有妳.我最好與你在一起.就這麼簡單...這是我仔細考慮後的.嫁給我.)
哇!如果真有男人如此對一個女人說，不嫁他豈不太蠢?
但是壞人得報應又處理得太容易，相較於Garwood浪費的5章去描繪Peyton倒楣到不行的職業生涯，這部分真的顯得過於潦草。
對了，如果童鞋對於”Sweet Talk(糖衣陷阱)”裡的Ronan與Collins，他們在這裡當然也出現了，愛情道路雖然不順（Collins跑給Ronan追），但Ronan已經申明他一定會娶她，Ronan說 “She’s just scared. She’ll come around.”，會不會結婚就等下一本Garwood的小說囉。
雖然抱怨一堆，但是我還是蠻期待Garwood的新小說，明(2014)年7月的新書”Fast Track”我還是會乖乖買單，沒辦法，唉!忠實讀者嘛。從簡介中看來，這故事設定在雪梨，不過Garwood這次終於有希望能脫離FBI了，..Thanks God!